Joyce Watson: I too welcome the report, and I do welcome the response from Welsh Government. It does indeed demonstrate their commitment to addressing the recommendations made by the committee. I’m going to focus solely on recommendation 6, and that concerns funding for independent domestic violence advisors, or IDVAs, and multi-agency risk assessment conferences, otherwise called MARACs. IDVAs often...
Joyce Watson: Leader of the house, could we, as a matter of urgency, have times to discuss Wales’s response to the plight of child refugees in the European camps? I’ve been contacted, and I expect many in this Chamber have been, by constituents from Mid Wales Refugee Action, and other groups, who express, and I quote, their deep sadness and horror about the UK Government’s decision to limit the...
Joyce Watson: I will confine my contribution to what we recognise as equalities. And my first observation is that, unlike the Welsh White Paper and the Scottish Government’s Paper, the UK White Paper doesn’t directly discuss the implications for equalities of Brexit. And, to me, that is a conspicuous but concerning omission. Perhaps the First Minister could have pointed it out had the UK Government...
Joyce Watson: Thank you. The final speaker in this statement—Michelle Brown.
Joyce Watson: Could you bring your comments to a conclusion, please?
Joyce Watson: It’s really great to be able to speak in such an important debate today. I do welcome the annual report on equalities and I want to actually focus specifically on objective 4, which is hate crime. I’m doing that because we are living in a time where that is growing, and hate crime across the protected characteristics of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity is...
Joyce Watson: Leader of the house, I would like to request that the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport makes a statement on the temporary overnight closure of Llandrindod Wells minor injuries unit. On Friday, I was informed by Powys Teaching Local Health Board that its minor injuries unit at Llandrindod Wells will temporarily have to shut between midnight and 7 a.m. for the whole month of...
Joyce Watson: I welcome that, but alcohol is ubiquitous in our society—it’s glamorised on tv, it’s promoted as something that you have to have in order to relax, or even to socialise. It’s advertised in sporting events, billboards, bus shelters, and magazines. Bearing that in mind, it’s not surprising that, based on alcohol sales, Public Health Wales have reported that 75 per cent of the Welsh...
Joyce Watson: 5. What is the Welsh Government doing to help reduce alcohol misuse in Wales? OAQ(5)0106(HWS)
Joyce Watson: Will the First Minister make a statement on road safety in Mid and West Wales?
Joyce Watson: I want to pay tribute to Julie Morgan for bringing so eloquently to the Chamber what is a very sensitive issue in the way that she has. I think, like David has already said, we have, in society, moved on. Your phrase is absolutely right: from being naive to opening our eyes to reality. The real issue here, it seems, according to the allegations, is that these individuals as children were...
Joyce Watson: So, I want to ask you, Cabinet Secretary, if you believe that this Bill will help to reduce the conflict that we’ve heard about today, and encourage resolution of that conflict in the public sector workforce?
Joyce Watson: I’m actually going to say that what this Act—. What we’re trying to do against this Act is prevent us, the workers in Wales, from being compared by the International Labour Organization committee to an Act put in place that is the most draconian since Thatcher and that has put us now in the spotlight with Qatar, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and others. That’s exactly where your Act is. It is...
Joyce Watson: Well, it’s been an enlightening debate and there’ve been a few bits of enlightenment that have come to the fore. The first thing that has very much come to the fore is the lie that UKIP is the party of the working class, because all they have done today is talk against the opportunities that we are trying put in place for hard-working people. Whilst we’re on this phrase of...
Joyce Watson: You’re right, First Minister, that food waste has reduced by 12 per cent, and it has saved 105 tonnes of carbon a year over that same period. However, even with that 12 per cent reduction, there has been 188,000 tonnes of food worth £70 million thrown away by Welsh households in 2015. Given that 50 per cent of that food waste comes from households, it is clear that reducing the amount of...
Joyce Watson: 3. What is the Welsh Government doing to reduce food waste in Welsh households? OAQ(5)0373(FM)
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Lywydd. I will be talking today about loneliness, and I’m pleased to allow time for both Eluned Morgan and Mark Isherwood to make contributions and I look forward to hearing the Minister or the Cabinet Secretary response. I was prompted to table this debate by two things. First, an e-mail that I received before Christmas from the British Red Cross. The charity has teamed up with the...
Joyce Watson: It is a truism that, at Christmas, we feel more together with other people, but more alone when we’re lonely. So, these stories struck a chord. Before her untimely death, Jo Cox helped gather evidence about loneliness in different parts of society: children who are desperately sad, new mums, isolated disabled people, men suffering from depression, and older people. And her work lives on,...
Joyce Watson: I’m really pleased with this scheme and whilst I recognise that £500,000 isn’t a huge amount of money, it’s money that’s very welcome, and I see that that is for this year and this year alone. So, my question is that I hope you’ll be able to continue this through the course of this Assembly. You talk about the continued enrichment that children within communities enjoy through...
Joyce Watson: I thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that response. As you know, in recent years many of my constituents have been catastrophically affected by flood events caused by severe weather, and many still remain at risk because of where they live. Therefore, the £33 million capital funding that has been allocated for flooding schemes, in addition to the £150 million innovative coastal risk...
